Kashmir violence: two civilians killed in border clash

Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged fire in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir on Saturday, killing two the civilian population and wounding six others, officials said.

Indian army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Manish Mehta told Pakistani soldiers started shelling and burning at Indian military posts in the morning in the Nowshera sector along the highly militarised Line of Control that subdivides the region between India and Pakistan. He told Indian troops returned fire and that the battle lasted into Saturday afternoon.

Pakistans army denied it initiated the skirmish and blamed Indian soldiers for burning and shelling in at the least seven sectors in violation of a 2003 ceasefire. It told three Pakistani civilians were wounded in the skirmish.

The nuclear-armed contenders routinely accuse each other of initiating margin clashes.

Shahid Iqbal, the civilian administrator in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, told two civilians on the Indian side were killed a 13 -year-old girl and a 51 -year-old man and three others were wounded.

Iqbal told more than 1,500 people in about 15 villages were still trapped in their homes, which were in the direct line of fire.

Earlier this month, India accused Pakistani soldiers of killing two Indian soldiersand mutilating their own bodies, an accusation Islamabad denied.

India and Pakistan have a long history of bitter relations over Kashmir, a territory claimed responsibility for both. They have opposed two of their three wars over the region since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.